Picture Book Favorites: March Edition
by Stacey
I usually post about picture books at least once a month and often twice but somehow I haven’t written about our latest favorites since early February. I don’t know exactly what this winter did my productivity but it was nothing good I can tell you that!
I’m still not sure that spring is on it’s way but I seem to be coming out of my lull none the less. Here are our current picture book favorites.
Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall. What’s to come of a red crayon that will only color in blue? First a lot of disappointment but over time he comes to realize that he has his own set of strengths. This is a perfect book for anyone who is searching for the ‘real me.’
The Storm Whale by Benji Davies. A little boy is very lonely during the day when his fisherman father is out on the water. Therefore, when he finds a beached baby whale, he is more than happy to bring his new friend home and plop him in the bathtub. When the family eventually brings the whale back to the ocean, the little boy learns what it means to have a friend.
Goodnight Already by Jory John & Benji Davies. This book was laugh out loud funny for adults and children alike. And the best part was that the nagging duck reminded Katherine of the nagging mouse in A Visitor for Bear. I love it when she makes these connections!
Smick written by Doreen Cronin & illustrated by Juana Medina. With no more than two words on each page, the author shows the power of few words as a full story is told. This book would make an awesome and engaging early reader!
Bad Dog Flash by Ruth Paul. When Katherine was learning how to read, I wrote a lot about ‘read together’ books. We loved these type of books that allowed an early reader to experience a sense of independence while reading. In these books, the grown up reads most of the text but then there are repeated lines of text throughout the book that allow the new reader to feel a great sense of confidence. Bad Dog Flash is a perfect read together story of a sweet little dog who is quite bad until he isn’t.
Special Delivery written by Phillip Stead and illustrated by Matthew Cordell. These creators are two of my favorites so I was super exited to read this tale of a little girl on a mission to mail an elephant to her Great Aunt Josephine. The book was great although I still love Stead’s Sick Day for Amos McGee and Cordell’s Another Brother more.
Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman and illustrated by Zachariah OHora. This tale of a bunny family who welcomes in a baby wolf is a great alternative to the sappy new baby stories that are out there. It is even funny enough to read if there are no new babies in your house.
Love your picks! I ‘m intrigued by the Storm Whale especially. I am curious (and you obviously don’t have to answer): do you buy or borrow most of the books you feature in these posts? I ask because our library, the children’s room at least, seems to be VERY slow when it comes to acquiring new picture books. And as much as I love to buy them (and do, often), it can get pricey at $15+ a pop (especially not knowing whether it will be received as a “dud” or not). I’m just curious–maybe you have some tips for purchasing new(er) books at a discount? I get older titles used from Better World Books, but the newer ones that are only 1-2 yrs old are not available there. Sorry to ramble!
Great question Kristen. I feel so lucky that we have an amazing library system in our area. We are part of a consortium of a ton of libraries with a very easy to use interlibrary loan process. There have only been a handful of books ever that I have wanted and not been able to get at the library. So that said, we borrow almost always. We do have a local children’s book store that we love and I feel is super important to support them so we buy there too but we buy a very small percentage of our picture books. With the girls getting older, even our most favorites don’t get re-read as much so it just make sense to borrow.
This makes me feel better. I also try to support via purchases but, like you seem to have also experienced, you just don’t know if it’s going to get re-read. That’s fine once in awhile, but not 100x! Sounds like my library system has some work to do! Thank you for answering this for me.
Aw, the Storm Whale looks so good. Actually they all seem like very unique stories with great illustrations too.
The Storm Whale really is a super sweet story.
I had the same thought about Smick – would be a great first reader!
Great minds think alike! And I really liked We All Looked Up. Crazy concept- still thinking about it. Especially how all the teenagers pretty much left home… Made me kind of sad at this time in my life.
We just checked out Wolfie the Bunny last week and absolutely loved it.
Wasn’t Wolfie funny!? Loved the concept and especially learning that author was called a wolf baby during temper tantrums!